"CONRAD, JOSEPH: THE THREE LIVES" (FREDERICK KARL).   Term Paper ID:20532 Click to get this paper

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Paper Abstract: Summary of biography of Polish-born author. Paper Introduction: Below is a chapter-by-chapter summary of the book Joseph Conrad: The Three Lives by Frederick R. Karl, detailing the main points in each chapter and relating them to the whole of the story of Conrad's life. PART I Joseph Conrad was born in 1857 in Poland, and the author finds that his years in Poland were a preparation for the exile and achievements he would attain after 1874. He was intended to be a "Konrad," which the authors says means he was meant to be a romantic hero as derived from poems by Mickiewicz. He would later anglicize the name to Conrad. The author traces the political and intellectual currents of the time to show the influences on Conrad as he grew up in Poland. His father, Apollo, was also a writer who was very politically involved, and Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Conrad's collection ofessays, The Mirror of the Sea, is important in this chapter for what issays about Conrad the artist. He first returned to London and wrote, developing his language andhis style. He also had more difficultieswith publishers. Health problems continued to be the bane of his existence andslowed him down more and more.PART VIII Conrad was getting older and had to confront the need for greaterimagination to replace his failing physical and mental energy. Had he died when Victory waspublished, he would not have been seen as in decline. The periodwould end with his suicide attempt when he was twenty, an attempt that wasprobably motivated by gambling debts but which Karl sees as also being areflection of his lifestyle during this period. He also finds thatConrad's work shows a tension between past and present that differentiatesit from other examples of the culture of the time.PART VII The period from 1899 to 191 is labeled "The Major Career." Theperiod began with the publication of Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim andalso with an attack on Conrad by a Polish writer unhappy that he had lefthis native Poland. The suicide attemptis found in a letter written by Tadeusz Bobrowski in 1879. In 1976 Conrad sailed from Marseillesas steward. Some critics foundConrad to be a striking new figure working in English. He was unhappy at his lack of advancement. In these novels, Conrad includes objects to whichhe gives mystical connotations. His early expectations had been frustrated. He lived another tenyears, though. He took the examinationand became a second mate. The one workKarl feels does not work in this period is The Rescue. In this section, Karl describes Conrad'sdevelopment as a novelist and the stylistic and theoretical underpinningsof his work. Pinker died in the early 192 s. He felt that his life lacked continuity. He determined to go to sea, which was not a simple decisiongiven the poor state of his health. Much of the speculation derives fromclose readings of Conrad's novels for clues to his own activities, withother data derived from letters and similar documents. Conrad was now devotedto separating himself geographically and mentally from Poland, and hisadoption of a new language was a definitive statement of separation. This is seen as anotherinstance of contradictions, opposites which were never resolved and whichcan be seen in the writings in the conflicts faced by characters.PART III From 1878 to 1889, Conrad was an English mariner. It was here that he met the black man who wouldbe the model for his novel The Nigger of the Narcissus. The writing of Heart of Darkness is discussed anddescribed based on letters and other sources. Karl sees the writer as one who is involved with seeing andknowing. He had many projects but noclear direction, and he also had an attack of gout and of depression. Conrad continued to be immersed in language and in learningEnglish thoroughly. He also visited Poland, but theexperience depleted him.PART IX The last section is called "Final Things" and details the last yearsof Conrad's life and thus the conclusion of his work. It was during thisperiod that he started his love affair with English and with Shakespeare inEnglish. Perhaps because of the problems in his own country, Joseph readwidely in travel books and had a temperament that was romanticallyinclined. Conrad setabout "packaging" himself so that he would appear to the public as hewished, remaking himself as much as he could. Healso had health problems brought on by dysentery and fever. Conrad was prolific duringthis decade, but by the end of the decade he was dawdling through his work,getting himself into a disgruntled state of mind as far as his work wasconcerned. He also came from a familywith a history of short lives. His father, Apollo, was alsoa writer who was very politically involved, and he was brought before amilitary tribunal and sentenced for his actions. He had finished the first draftof Almayer's Folly. All of his remainingwork was now an extension of A Personal Record in the form ofreminiscences, autobiography, and memoir material. Conrad wrote a few plays (alladaptations), but his attitude toward playwrights and actors was and wouldremain hostile. He soldearly manuscripts and rediscovered manuscripts he had forgotten. He met and married Jessie George, a woman withradical differences from Conrad in terms of age, class, background, status,education, sophistication, and expectation. BibliographyKarl, Frederick R., Joseph Conrad: The Three Lives. Conrad's shooting himself is seen as aromantic act which may have been planned to fail. Conrad may have engagedin unlawful activities during this period, such as running contraband armsto rebels in Columbia. He had acquired a number of ailments from his Congotrip. Lord Jim began as a storyand developed into a novel. The author seesConrad as a young man far from his uncle's influence who was trying to workout his feelings and ideas. He was a lonely man who developedhis concepts while at sea. The author sees this period as a sort of initiation. In 1878 he set sail on the Drake of Sutherland fora little more than a year. His roots in Poland would always remainstrong.PART II This section of the book deals with Conrad's French period from 1874to 1878. Theauthor finds that his behavior was an effort to throw off authority and tofind freedom. He sailed on theMavis for Constantinople. Below is a chapter-by-chapter summary of the book Joseph Conrad:The Three Lives by Frederick R. He experienced some financial pressures during thisperiod. This trip solidified his desire to be a seaman and providedhim with experiences that fired his imagination. The authortraces the political and intellectual currents of the time to show theinfluences on Conrad as he grew up in Poland. He had hada collapse, and now he must overcome the worst effects and maintain hisreputation. This trip also would appear in his fiction,notably in Heart of Darkness. He beganto realize his worth in English letters. He would later anglicize the name to Conrad. When he did sail it was as asupernumerary on a different vessel to learn the river. Conrad during this period considered a number of differentcountries and ventures in these different regions. He returned toEngland. He became associated with James Brand Pinker as his agent.Pinker was newly established as an agent, and the early years of therelationship were the most difficult, made more difficult by the fact thatConrad was between works. Othervoyages are detailed by Karl, and many of the people Conrad met would alterturn up as characters in his fiction. He became captain of the Otago, heresigned, and he started his writing career with Almayer's Folly.PART IV During the next period of his life, Conrad would explore Leopold'sCongo. He died in 1924. He was putting all his energies intohis work. He had found how fickle an enterprise could be when it was notentirely in his own hands. This was the beginning of Conrad's formal seacareer, and it was unromantic and very hard work. This along with his poor health may havecontributed to his decision to leave the sea for a writing career. Reports of Stanley's journey to Africa fired his imagination,and he went to the Congo. Nostromo was a political statement that saw government asa close-meshed net of crime and corruption. Wells, Arnold Bennett, W.H.Hudson, George Gissing, and Edmund Gosse. The editor objected because ofthe difficulties in the narrative structure of this work--it did not lenditself to serialization. Karl notes thereception of the book and also discusses the psychological thread that runsthrough it and the two subsequent books in the trilogy. Conrad's uncle died in 1894, andit was after this that he completed Almayer's Folly. He also completed itsrevision that year and had it accepted by a publisher. The journey taken by Conrad was much less eventful andbizarre than the one taken by Marlow in Heart of Darkness, but it wouldserve as a model just the same. He began to think of a uniform edition of his works. Gide, who held in highest esteem theConrad works of the early period. This made the youngerConrad subject to certain laws because his father had been a convict,notably subjecting him to the military draft for a period of up to 25years. The period would end when he sailed on a British ship called theMavis. Many were quiteenthusiastic. Conrad was to command a vessel when he reached Kinshasa, but upon arrivalhe found that the ship had been wrecked. Conrad continued to write Almayer's Folly,line by line. Karl, detailing the main points in eachchapter and relating them to the whole of the story of Conrad's life.PART I Joseph Conrad was born in 1857 in Poland, and the author finds thathis years in Poland were a preparation for the exile and achievements hewould attain after 1874. Karl discusses anumber of Conrad's works and notes that they come in several sizes andshapes but that they are connected by a singular imaginative thrust. He finds that Conrad's imagination during this period was movingtoward an integration of novelistic elements. This wasa pattern throughout his career--he had to accept berths a step or twobelow his attainments. The author finds that Conradthroughout his life and his work would try to blend the different elementsof his life together, elements that were disparate and that were verydifferent from other writers. His base of information came from traveland travelers. He came to theUnited States and toured by car. He was writing rapidly but lackeddiscipline in his personal affairs. Muchof what Conrad did during this period is subject to speculation, and anumber of contradictions are noted. He looked back on hisown life in a way he had not done before. Karl notes the development of Conrad as a writer up to 1899,his marriage and its effects on him and his work, and the other workswritten during this period before he became a major novelist.PART VI Conrad was an intuitive writer and not one to derive his ideas orother elements from literary sources. Conrad differed from other writers in not being a literary man inthe American or British sense. His writings wereless frequent, and he turned to correspondence instead. There is no direct evidence of this, however. In 1874 he left for Marseilles, wherehe would spend the next period of his life. Many of his works were serialized, and hesuggested serialization of Chance in 1912. Theperiod from 1899 to 19 4 was a period in which he borrowed extensively fromhimself and in which he seems to have been working imaginatively toward aholistic vision of life. He wanted to win the Nobel Prize, but iteluded him. He was intended to be a "Konrad," which theauthors says means he was meant to be a romantic hero as derived from poemsby Mickiewicz. The novel became the first of Conrad'scharacteristically convoluted stories. Conrad entered a period in which frustratedplans were intermixed with sporadic work. He wrote another play thatwas produced, based on The Secret Agent, but it failed. He workedon translations of his works. He continued to search for commands and exoticposts and tried to push forward his maritime career. Under Western Eyes was a work from this period. Conrad signed on the Loch Etive, a fine woolclipper, as third mate because that was the only berth available. Karl shows how specific experiences were transformedinto the characters and events of later stories based on this African trip. He started hissecond work, An Outcast of the Islands. He becameclose to writer and critic Andr? Both he and his wife experienced health problemsduring this period. He had not completely given up hissearch for a maritime post. He spent some time in the hospital. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979.----------------------- 3 Karl describes the effort in writing Lord Jimand the circumstances of the other novels written during this period--Romance and Nostromo in particular. He would become moreinvolved in his career as a writer in the next period of his life, however.PART V Conrad was now 33 and in failing health. The author discusses the works of this period andshows how they developed. He was working hard, but it washaving an effect on his health. He read widely among romantic novelists like James FenimoreCooper. He made the tripto Stanley Falls and back. This trip would also beConrad's second view of the sea, and he would later record many impressionsthat were gathered during this era. Karl also finds that the sea is presentedagain and again as something calm and unstirred, and he feels that Conradwas working through an image of immobility and inertness. Publication of Almayer's Follywas delayed, and Conrad became disenchanted with Unwin, his publisher.Conrad's health was poor as the publication date arrived. This was the period of World War I. He met John Galsworthy andformed a pivotal friendship, the first of a number of writers he would meetand with whom he could discuss his work--H.G. Conrad kept a diary of his journey whichwould serve as the source for much of the material he would later use inthe novella. Conrad was gloomy about his career, buthe still published a number of works. Karl finds that the "mirror" of the titlesuggests the narcissistic component of symbolist poetry. Conrad worked on revisions of The Rescue. It was also the timewhen Conrad's reputation would soar in the United States and elsewhere.Conrad became more concerned with his reputation and with arranging it ashe wanted it to be. His English at the time was no less adequate than that of anyuneducated English boy. The ship sailed toAustralia, and Conrad turned 21 during the voyage. Heturned 55 in 1916 and began to look back rather than forward. This periodends with the publication of Victory. 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